opponent was forced to withdraw shortly before the bout due to injury. Instead, South African Earl Morais was chosen as a late replacement. The fight again ended in the first round as Maccarinelli stopped Morais with a left hook after 90 seconds. His promoter Frank Warren commented after the fight that Maccarinelli was "one of the hardest punchers in the world". In his third defence of the title, Maccarinelli overcame Gary Delaney in Cardiff. He knocked his opponent down seven times during the bout before the fight was eventually stopped in the eighth round, the first time Maccarinelli had been past the fourth round in his career. The experienced Delaney would later become part of Maccarinelli's camp for fights later in the year after offering to assist him after their bout. A fight against Cruzat was again postponed when the Chilean suffered an ankle injury during his training camp, with Ismail Abdoul stepping in to take his place. Maccarinelli endured a frustrating bout against Abdoul, going the full distance for the first time in his career in what Steve Bunce described as "12 seriously repetitive rounds". He won the fight by unanimous decision. He made seven successful defences of his WBU title before vacating. WBO cruiserweight champion On 8 July 2006, Maccarinelli fought against former World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight champion Marcelo Fabian Domínguez for the WBO interim cruiserweight title. Maccarinelli won the title with a ninth-round TKO. The natural progression was a title fight against the then WBO title holder, Johnny Nelson. Due to several injuries to Nelson this matchup never transpired, and on 22 September 2006 he announced his retirement, automatically relinquishing the belt and allowing Maccarinelli to be promoted to full champion status. Title defences On 14 October 2006 Maccarinelli made his first defence of the WBO title, stopping former opponent Mark Hobson in the first round in a fight that was widely expected to last the distance. This was followed by another first round win over Bobby Gunn on 7 April 2007 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. The Gunn fight was stopped with just :25 seconds remaining in the first round by referee Mark Nelson, even though Gunn was not down and only had a small cut. It was widely and erroneously reported that Maccarinelli had broken Bobby Gunn's nose, but it was a small cut to the bridge of the nose that caused the bleeding.